Hidden Away
by SMacked Hard
Summary: This is my first fan fic. It may not be as good as everyone elses. This is a story where it's not smart to hide anything, all it does is make things tougher or you may end up getting killed. Guest starring Sid. H and Sheldon H. And I'm a SMacked shipper.
1. Chapter 1

HIDDEN AWAY 

It was afternoon at Angelwood High School, about 4:00 PM and after-school activities were just starting. The day had started like every other. It was a surprisingly warm, sunny day in early fall. The halls were cleaned up by the janitors, the halls now having that Mr. Clean smell. Cassandra Crenshaw just went into the locker room, getting dressed after swim practice. After finishing, Cassandra walked into the music room to get her equipment for Color Guard.

She was in a good mood, enjoying this warm, nice day. Deep in her thoughts, she didn't pay attention that another person joined her in the room. She didn't notice how the door was closed again, now the person slowly approached her. All of a sudden, a dark figure grabbed Cassandra. Before she had a chance to react or to fight back, she was slammed against the wall. She tried to fight back but without any success. Josh Lee, a football player, was just walking down the hall, when he heard a plea from the music room.

Instinctively, he ran to see what all the commotion was about. He found Cassandra gasping for air, her blood everywhere. As soon as he tried to help her, he was hit on the head. Before he got the chance to catch a glance of their attacker, everything around him went black.

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It was early the next morning, when Mac arrived at Anglewood High school. Even before he had parked his car, he discovered the familiar yellow crime scene tape.

"What happened here?" he asked, joining Stella, who had just joined him.

"The victim is 16 year old Cassandra Crenshaw," she answered. "She fell out of this closet when Susan Bennett opened the closet up. There was another victim, 17 year old Josh Lee; he was taken to the hospital this morning. I'm going to the hospital now to ask him questions."

"Alright Stella," Mac replied, already on his way inside the building.

"I'll meet you back here later."Quickly, Mac made his way through the endlessly long hallways of the school. He had just entered the room where the victim had been found, when Hawkes looked up at him.

"It looks like Cassandra suffered a stab wound directly under her right breast," he said before Mac could even ask him.

"And it is definitely not from a knife. It looks like she may have been strangled too, by something very fine and sharp when used with great force. TOD is approximately 14 hours ago, around 5:00 PM yesterday."

Mac nodded. "Thanks,",he said as he looked and he discovered the girl Stella had mentioned before; a young girl, shock clear visible in her eyes. Walking over to the woman, he added,"

Susan Bennett? I'm Detective Mac Taylor. Can I talk to you?".

Susan Bennett nodded. With a shaking hand, she tried to wipe the tears off her still wet face. "Yeah, sure.""What happened this morning?" Mac asked.

"Well I got here around 6:15 this morning," Susan started to explain. Her voice was shaky; she still had problems with controlling it enough to speak. "I parked my car and I came inside. I was going to put my coat away. I opened up the closet and the body fell out, I can't believe this happened."

"Did you notice anything strange when you came in this morning?" Mac wanted to shook her head.

"Nothing was really strange or odd, the only thing I can think of is that the doors were opened and there are always locked, there was no one in the room when I came in, everything looked normal, and nothing was out of place.""So, you are the only one with a key?"Susan nodded. "It's only me and one of the janitors; I'm not sure which one." "What about the keys on the closets?" Mac asked.

"I'm the only one that has the keys to those locks, this is the only way to open those locks, unless you cut the lock off," Susan nodded.

"Thank you.", Mac said.

"Your welcome, I can't believe someone would hurt Cassandra, this is so sad," Susan replied, new tears already rising in her eyes.

"Don't worry," Mac answered, giving the girl a supportive smile. "We'll find the person who did this to her."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

While Mac was back at the crime scene Stella was at the hospital getting ready to ask Josh Lee, an injured victim, some questions about the crime he experienced.

Stella entered the hospital room where Josh was hospitalized in. He had bandages on his head from the attack of Cassandra's murderer. "Josh Lee?" Stella asked, as she came in the room. "I'm Stella Bonasera from the NY crime lab. Can I talk to you?"

Stella could tell Josh was in pain because he could barely keep his eyes open and it hurt for him to sit up and unfortunately, the obvious black and blue bruises on his head.

"Of course, what are you here for?" Stella sat down on the chair next to Josh. "I'm here to ask you questions about yesterday and this morning, do you still remember what happened?"

While Josh was thinking of what to say Stella remembered when she was in the hospital after Frankie had attacked her and when she had to shoot him, she couldn't imagine what Josh was going through.

"Yes, I still remember, so where should I start", Josh said nervously. He was still getting over what he experienced. "From the beginning, just take your time." Stella replied, getting out her pocketbook to write down the important details.

"Well, I was walking to my locker to get my books, I stay after school for football practice and I drive home and it was around 5:10 and I heard a scream from the music room." Josh explained.

Stella, who was listening attentively, was noticing Josh go silent for a moment.

"Wait, who was killed? I don't remember." Josh asked, with a confused look on his face.

"Cassandra Crenshaw, did you know who she was?" Stella asked.

"Oh my god, Cassie was killed? I can't believe this! Who would do this to her? I couldn't even tell who she was, same goes for her killer. All I saw was blood on the floor and right when I looked up, I got hit on the head by something really hard and everything went dark after that, all I remember is when I entered the room, the murderer had very dark clothes on, I pretty sure they were black, that's all I remember. I didn't know Cassie well, she asked me to tutor her.", Josh said.

"It seems like you cared about her, did you have a crush on her?" Stella smiled at him, but still had a sympathetic grin present.

"Of course I did, she was a really nice girl. She wasn't just this hot blonde girl with no brains she really cared about school and she really wanted to improve her grades in Algebra and Science, so she came to me. That's really all I can tell you, unless you go talk to one of her friends. Her really good friend is Victoria Adams and I'm pretty sure she will know more than me. I can give you her number or an address, and I'm pretty sure she is at work now, at the Smith's pharmacy." Josh said.

"Here you can write it down on here." Stella said and handed him a piece of paper from her pocketbook.

Josh handed the paper back to Stella with Cassandra's best friends' number and address on it.

"Please, don't let this person get away, they killed an innocent girl. Whoever would do that deserves to get punished." Josh said, as he slowly laid his back down on the bed.

"We'll do everything we can to find this killer, and I promise you that." Stella said with a confident smile and nodded at Josh and he nodded back.

As soon as Stella left Josh's hospital room she took out her cell phone to call Mac to tell him the interesting news.

"Hey Mac, it's Stella, Josh gave me very interesting details about the crime. He also gave me an address and a number of Cassandra's best friend and told me her workplace too." Stella said, as she was getting into her car.

"Great, I will meet you back here; I have something shocking to show you." Mac said to Stella as he was looking for evidence, which good be found all over the school, but he was focused by the closet where Cassandra was knocked down."

Mac was waiting at the front of the school when all of a sudden he saw a black SUV pull up in front of him. It was Stella, who was carrying her pocketbook in her right hand and her cell phone in her left. Mac had a big crush on Stella for a really long time, and he really wanted to show her his feelings.

"You look great!" Mac said cautiously, not knowing what Stella was going to say.

"Thanks, you too!" Stella replied, with a big grin on her face. She was going to get all red but she controlled her embarrassment, even though it was a great compliment from the guy she loved for years, but she just hasn't had the guts to ask him, but they both had to worry about solving this crime and catching this killer.

" Well, I called Cassandra's friend, Victoria Adams and I can't get a hold of her, I called her cell about 5 times, so I guess we might have to go find her at work.", Stella said as she was listening to her voicemail, to see if Victoria may have called her back.

"Before we do that, we have to find that weapon, and Hawkes already told us that it wasn't a knife so we can rule that out as a possible murder weapon." Mac said, as he and Stella were making their way back to the music room.

"So where do we start?" Stella asked, looking around the room for a possible starting place.

"Right from the beginning, at the entrance." Mac answered, as he walked toward the doorway.

"Well then, let's get started." Stella said as she put on her latex gloves as Mac did the same.

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Mac and Stella had a long way ahead of them.

"Hey Mac, I think I found something." Stella said as she walked over by the windows near the xylophones, and picked up a drum stick.

Mac watched Stella in amazement as she looked over the drum stick.

"Mac, I am no drum expert, but I don't think drum sticks should be away from the other drums sticks in that room over there, Stella explained as she pointed to the percussion room. And I'm pretty sure they shouldn't be sharpened." Stella said, with a confused and puzzling look in her eyes. Mac and Stella shared a few moments of silence together and Mac interrupted the silence.

Mac walked over to Stella and she handed the drum sticks to him.

"Stella, I think you found the murder weapon." Mac said.

Stella paused and she looked around the room and turned to Mac.

"Wait, didn't Hawkes say that Cassandra was chocked with something sharp, maybe we can find it in here." she said as she started looking through the closets for a possible chocking device.

"Hey Stella, come here for a second." Mac said, as he took a guitar out of a guitar case. "This is a really nice base guitar, but there's a problem with the strings…there's blood on It.", he said as he showed the bloody string to Stella. "This could definitely chock Cassandra or kill her if you used with tremendous force."

"Well Mac, I think you possibly found our other murder weapon." Stella said, as she gave an approving nod to him.

As Mac and Stella were packing up to leave the crime scene, Stella's cell phone rang. Stella picked it up, hoping that it would be Victoria, Cassandra's friend.

"Bonasera… Oh hi Sid. What do you need?" Stella said, looking down at her wristwatch, thinking what time they could catch Victoria at the store.

Hawkes told her he had the COD of Cassandra and he wanted Mac and Stella to come up immediately.

"Ok, Hawkes, we'll be there right away." Stella said, as you put her cell phone in her pocket, as Mac walked over to see the news.

"What happened?" he said. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. Sid just wanted us to know that he found the cause of death of Cassandra and he wants us to be there as soon as we can."

"What about Victoria, aren't we supposed to question her?" Mac asked Stella as he handed her briefcase to her.

"I think it can wait, from what Josh Lee told me Victoria will still be working until 6:30, it's only 3:35 now so we will make it in time." Stella told Mac as they walked out of the school.

It only took them about 15 minutes to get back to the lab and when they walked in the door they were greeted by Sid, who was waiting for them to return.

"Hey, how are you guys?" Sid said as they walked into his office.

"Oh we're good." Mac said, also answering for Stella.

"So Hawkes, what did you find for us?" Stella asked as Sid was uncovering the body.

"Well, first off, I said earlier that she may have been chocked by something sharp and I concluded that it would be a wire or something like that.", Sid said pointing to the sharp cut made on Cassandra's neck.

"And I found just that." Stella said as she handed the bag with the guitar string to Sid.

"Oh great, good job Stella. So this would have definitely leaded to her death, but not COD." he said.

"But what is it then. The stab wound?" Mac said, waiting for an answer.

"Yes it is. The guitar string did have an affect on Cassandra but not enough to kill her. She lost only a little amount of blood from her neck but whoever stabbed her didn't have a precise route. The knife went through the rib cage into her heart and it would cause her to die immediately and she would bleed to death." Sid said, looking at Mac to see what he had in the bag he was holding.

"What's in that bag, Mac?" he said.

Mac walked over and handed the bag to Sid.

"Well, this is the main weapon, a drum stick." Mac said.

"Oh wow, this is the first case I saw a drum stick used as a weapon. As you can see on Cassandra's body, it was definitely not from a knife and the drum stick would definitely fit in directly with the wound." Sid said setting the drum stick on the table.

"Good job, did you find any prints on these yet?" Sid asked.

"Oh no, we are going to run them once we're done here. Is there anything else we need to know here?" Stella asked.

"Well, on Cassandra's shirt, I found a heavy trace of cologne, so the person you're looking for has a lot of cologne on." Sid replied as he covered up the body and took off his gloves.

"Thanks Sid, we'll see you later." Stella said, as she and Mac walked out of the room.

It was only a short time when Stella got the results of the prints from the drum stick.

"Hey Mac, I got four prints from the drum stick. The first is from Josh Lee, he's the boy I already interviewed, the second is from 16 year old Leonardo Melchiona, 16 year old Brittany George and Cassandra's prints are on the stick also…something fishy is going on.", Stella said, with a puzzled grin looking back down at the results, looking for a mistake.

"Wow, well one of those people is one of our killers." Mac said, as he opened up the door for Stella as they went outside for some fresh air.

"Or maybe the killer had some help." Stella said as she gave a little wink to Mac.

They still weren't positively sure if the killer had an accomplice but they were going to find out sooner or later.

For about a minute, Mac and Stella were taking a break, taking in the New York air and looked at the big blue sky and puffy clouds, until they were interrupted by Stella's cell phone. Stella answered. It was Victoria Adams. She had answered her call and offered to talk to her about Cassandra.

"Hey Mac, that was Victoria. She said we can meet her up at Smith's pharmacy." Stella said as she grabbed her car keys from her purse.

"Well, let's head up there immediately." Mac said, taking shotgun in the front seat. "Hey Stell, I love the smell of this car, what is that?" he said, trying to flirt with Stella.

"Oh wow, I have never heard you call me Stell, I like it. Oh and it's lilac. You like it?" Stella said, with a big grin in her face, watching the red light.

"Yes, it is amazing. I'm going to get it for my car.", Mac said, he and Stella both sharing a laugh.

"Oh we're here; well let's go see what Victoria knows." Stella said, crossing the street with Mac not far behind.

"Cool, sounds good." he said, as he followed Stella into the building.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was only 5:32 PM when Mac and Stella made it into the pharmacy. There were many people in the store, more than they expected. Stella made her way to the front counter and asked for Victoria.

"Hi, welcome to Smith's pharmacy! How can I help you?" a woman said, whose name tag said Sally. "Would you like to pick up a prescription?" Sally said; with a big smile and showing off her overly white teeth.

"Oh no, I am Stella Bonasera and that is Mac Taylor, we are from the New York Crime Lab. We are here to talk to Victoria Adams. Is she here right now?" Stella said, while Mac handed a note to the woman on why they had to talk to Victoria. They didn't want to make a big deal out of it, not in front of all of these people.

"Oh, ok, she's right back here. Vicky! There is a man and woman here to talk to you", Sally said, as she directed her finger towards the doorway in the back, letting Mac and Stella know to follow her. "Ok, take as many minutes as you need to discuss what you must." Sally said, holding the door open for Mac and Stella, and then she walked back up to the front desk.

"Hi, you must be Stella. It's nice to meet you. You must be here to talk about to Cassie." Victoria Adams, a sweet-looking, brown-haired girl, dressed up in her work uniform. Stella could tell Victoria was uncomfortable, twirling her hair around her fingers, but still keeping eye contact.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you too! This is Mac Taylor. He is going to help me ask questions so we can get closer to finding the person who killed Cassie." Stella said, pointing to Mac. Mac gave a friendly smile to Vicky and Vicky nodded back.

Mac walked over and leaned against a wall, nearest to Vicky and Stella took a seat right next to her. With only one chair, you know Mac would let Stella sit down, he is such a gentleman.

"Vicky, can you tell us anything that seemed strange or different for the last couple of weeks that involved Cassie?" Mac said, watching Vicky's eyes. Her eyes were full of fear and started to look glossy; she was probably going to cry.

"Well, not really. She was coming to school and talked on the phone with me and never missed anything, but I think she was getting tutored by someone, I don't know his name." Vicky said, looking around the room, still very uncomfortable.

Stella knew that description from somewhere.

"Do you mean Josh Lee?" she asked, hoping it was Josh and not someone else.

"Yeah, that's his name, Josh. She was having trouble in her work and she asked him. I'm surprised she asked him, he's a jock. Usually jocks are dumb. At least that's what I think" Vicky said, getting a little giggle from her remark.

"Did anyone have a problem with Josh a friend or anyone that was jealous?" Mac asked looking at a blue bruise on Vicky's arm.

"Not anyone that I knew of. Cassie was a very friendly girl. She got along with everyone, except people that messed with her or her friends. Hmm, maybe her boyfriend, but I don't think he had a problem with it. He's a very supportive boyfriend. He loved her very much." Cassie said who started to get very nervous when Stella stood up and walked toward her.

"What's her boyfriend's name? And you're positive that he wouldn't have a problem with another guy hanging around Cassie? Usually other men have this issue." Stella said, who also noticed the uncovered bruise on Vicky's right arm.

"His name is Leonardo Melchiona. And of course I'm positive; I'm not going to lie about my dead best friend. Do you know how it feels to lose someone so close to your heart? And even if Leo had a problem, he didn't show it in front of me or anyone close to Cassie, and I would've known if he had a problem. Things fly fast in this school." Vicky said, releasing her anger at Stella and quickly put her hands over her eyes and a tear rolled down her face.

"I know how it feels. I lost my wife. That's the biggest loss I've even known", Mac said, addressing Vicky's question and then attracted Stella's attention from what he had said.

"Oh, I'm sorry to here that sir, I'm sorry I blew up on you guys, I'm sorry." Vicky said, while she shook her head, feeling very ashamed.

"It's ok Vicky; we know this is hard for you. It's hard for everyone when this happens. You just have to bear with us. Ok?" Stella said, noticing that Mac was looking out the window, toward the sky, thinking about something.

"But why?" Vicky said, jumping out of her seat. She couldn't control her anger anymore. "Why did this happen to Cassie? She's the sweetest girl you could ever meet. Thinking who would want to kill is beyond me. Oh, when I find out who did this to her…ooh I can't imagine what I would do.

Mac headed away from the window and walked toward Vicky.

"It's ok, Vicky, calm down, we will get the person who killed her, and don't you worry. Just have some hope. Sit down, please?" Mac asked, with a very shocked expression on his face. Who knew that this sweet-looking girl had so much anger inside of her?

"Wait", Vicky said, grabbing Stella and Mac's attention, which drew him away from the window. "Come to think of it, I think she had one fight with a girl, her name is Brittany I think, Brittany George. Maybe she did it, I'm not sure though." Vicky said, with a very mean look in her eyes, trying to control her anger.

"Did she have something against you and Cassie?" Mac asked, still examining that bruise on Vicky's arm.

"Yeah, she picked on Cassie and I since we were kids, but we stuck together through it all…oh all the good times we had." Vicky said who seemed to be dwelling on her past moments with Cassie.

"Who gave you that bruise on your arm", Stella asked, walking even closer to Vicky.

"It's nothing really; a box fell when I was lifting boxes the other day." Vicky said, and Stella knew she was lying and her hands were also shaking.

"Are you sure, was it Cassie, Josh or Leo…" Mac said, before getting cut off by Vicky.

"Ok, ok, I tried to talk to Cassie three days before she was killed and I noticed her mood and her attitude changed, she wasn't the same person anymore." Cassie said, instantly putting her hand over her bruise.

"And you weren't happy about that, were you?", Stella said, staring back at Mac, still thinking of something, but looked up when he saw Stella staring at him. Stella wanted to know what he was thinking about, but what was it?

"Of course not, this…jock, was taking my friend away. He was also changing her. She wasn't respectful anymore. She never called me. We talked everyday. God, I hated him. Why the heck did she have to talk to him in the first place?" Cassie said, taking a deep breath, calming herself down a bit.

"Ok, I think you told us quite enough. We will find the person who did this, don't you worry. Do you have the addresses or know any place where we can find Leonardo or Brittany?" Mac said, already heading toward the door.

"Well, I know there's a big game at school today, I know Brittany plays soccer. And Leo plays the drums. The band usually plays. You should find them both there." Vicky said, getting out of her seat.

"Thank you, Vicky. When does the game start?" Stella said, pushing the chair under the table.

"At 6:30." Vicky said, walking out of the room.

"Well then, we better hurry Stella, we don't want to miss the beginning", Mac said, who was last out of the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Stella and Mac made their way out of the pharmacy and back into the car.

"Hey, I'm driving this time." Mac said, grabbing the keys out of Stella's hand. Stella sat in the passenger seat.

"So are you ready for a great game?" Stella asked as Mac was pulling into the street heading north toward Angelwood High School. Stella couldn't help but notice that little spark she always got when Mac was around, maybe it was his beautiful green eyes or handsome smile that made her heart melt and her mind go crazy.

"Well, if you mean interrupting a game, then fine with Me.", Mac said, sharing a chuckle with Stella.

They were already fifteen minutes late because of rush hour traffic and Mac knew he would probably have to stop the game.

"Hey Mac, I think this was the game we are looking for.", Stella said, pointing toward the soccer field.

The game had already started and the band was playing on the left side of the field. It was an all-girls soccer team. By the look of the sky, the game was going to get interrupted anyway, probably by rain showers and maybe even a thunderstorm.

Mac and Stella parked the car at the east side of the parking lot and headed up a stone path to the field.

Mac loved these little moments with Stella, he lived for them. He never wanted them to end. The saddest part of each day at the crime lab isn't the dead bodies, it's having to say goodbye to Stella at the end of the day, even though he would see her early the next morning.

"Mac, watch out." Stella screamed, warning Mac to watch out for the soccer ball hurdling toward his head, but Mac had very good sight and saw the ball coming even before Stella saw it and Mac caught the ball.

A girl started walking toward Mac for the ball but he kicked it in the woods. The girls got angry, but that was the least of their worries.

"Everyone stay calm. We are from the NY crime lab. We need to take one soccer player and one band member from this game, do you mind?" Mac said to the Coach Andes. "We are looking for Brittany George and Leonardo Melchiona. Are they here?"

"Well, I know Brittany is. I haven't seen Leo today. He must be late." Coach Andes said, as he called Brittany out from the field.

"Hi, did I do something wrong", Brittany asked, as she was escorted down the hill toward the SUV.

"Well, nothing we know of yet" Stella said, who was about to head toward the car too, until Coach Andes said something.

"Hey, there's Leo." Coach Andes said, pointing Leo, who was walking toward the hill from the west side of the parking lot.

"Leonardo Melchiona, NYPD!" Stella screamed, but Leo made a run for it.

Stella started chasing down Leo and Mac addressed Brittany to stay put and also started running after Leo. Leo got very close to being by the school, which was about a mile away from the field and he was running out of breath. Leo cut through a garden and ended up tripping on a root in the ground. And Stella held him to the ground.

"NYPD, don't move, you aren't going anywhere. You're coming with us." Stella said, grabbing Leo's arms and held them behind his back.

"Why did you start running?" Mac asked, picking up Stella's badge, it fell off when she was running.

"I don't like cops, I never did. I'm afraid because of something in my past", Leo said, as he was taken to the car.

Everyone sat in the car. Mac was in the driver's seat and Stella in the passenger seat. Brittany was behind her and Leo was behind Mac.

"You two are in big trouble, you know that?" Stella said, turning her head to face Brittany and Leo. Mac was looking into the rearview mirror, watching the teenagers.

"What did we do?" Brittany asked with a rather confused look on her face.

"Yeah, what did we do?" Leo asked, and then looked at Brittany.

"One of you may have killed someone", Mac said, turning left, heading toward the lab, about 3 miles away.

"No, I didn't kill anyone. I'm an A+ student, I would never kill anyone", Brittany said, her voice cracked when she said "kill anyone".

"Well, you are both being interrogated separately and one of you killed Cassandra Crenshaw.", Stella said, keeping her eyes on Leo. He was very silent for the whole ride since they were at the school.

It only took about thirty-three minutes since they were at the school to get to the lab. The sky was a pale blue color. The storm must have passed over. It was about fifty-three degrees out. That was a pretty good temperature for New York in the fall.

Mac parked by the side of the building where most of the workers of the lab parked. Usually Mac and Stella have their cars parked by Danny and Lindsay's car but they were visiting family in Montana. They walked into the basement and took the elevator, Leo and Brittany walking in front of them. They were going up to level 3, where most of the interrogating rooms were at. Brittany and Leo were giving each other weird looks on the way up.

"Ok, Leo you are first. And Brittany, that officer over there will watch you while we interrogate Leo." Mac said, leading Leo into the eerie interrogating room; everybody's nightmare, whether you were innocent or guilty, it wasn't a fun place to be.

Stella was the last one in the room and shut the door on her way in and took a seat next to Mac.

"So, Leo, where were you on Monday around 4:00." Mac asked, watching Leo's blank expression, he didn't want anyone to tell what he was thinking.

"I was at school, where else would I be? The band had to practice for the soccer game today." Leo said, looking out the window and saw Brittany looking at him.

"Which instrument do you play?" Stella asked pulling out the drum sticks from an evidence bag and hid them under the table.

"I play drums, why does it matter?" Leo said, trying not to look nervous but I wasn't working anymore.

"We know you killed Cassie, Leo. These are your drum sticks, it has your print on it and it's covered in blood. It also has Brittany's and Josh Lee's prints on it care to explain that to us?" Stella asked, instantly noticing Leo's eyes fired up immediately when Stella said Josh's name.

"I didn't kill her. And those are Josh's drum sticks, not mine. And I saw Josh trying to teach Brittany how to play, so none of us killed her.", Leo said, still full of anger and remorse.

"Hey Leo, when you told us earlier, why were you afraid of cops? What happened in your past?" Mac asked, noticing Leo's anger-filled eyes calm down and became watery.

"My dad wasn't a good dad. He abused my mom on a regular basis, sometimes he hit me too. See?" Leo said, pointing to a scar on his shoulder. "One night, a Saturday night, he went too far. My mom told me to stay in my room but I hide on the stairs, just enough so I could see down in the living room. He had a knife next to her neck and then pulled it down to her stomach. He said, "I'll kill you, if you ever try to call the police or tell anyone of what I'm doing." Leo acted out the vicious scene. I called 911; I didn't want him to hurt my mom. I loved my dad, but…I loved my mom more, I can't believe I didn't call them earlier, I'm so stupid." Leo said. A couple tears came out of his eyes, rolled down his cheeks and fell to the table.

"So what happened?" Stella asked. This somewhat reminded her of what Frankie had done to her, threatening to kill her if she said anything. She felt very bad for the boy.

"The police came and sent my father away. I ran down and hugged my mom, but she said to me, "It's not safe for you here anymore, I have to send you away, and I'm sorry baby." Leo said. "I haven't seen my mom ever since, I'm in a foster family now. I miss her, why did I call the police?" Leo said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"If you hadn't, your mom may have been killed, and you may have been too. You're a good man for calling the police." Mac said who looked at Stella who was still in shock by the boy's story.

Suddenly, Stella jumped out of her shocked state and started asking questions again.

"And what about the guitar string?" Stella asked, pulling out the string as well.

"I don't know anything about a guitar string." Leo said, trying to look away, but he couldn't. "And those drum sticks were sharpened…why would you have sharpened drums stick with you?" Stella asked, Leo couldn't hold in his anger anymore.

"Ok, I was there, but I didn't kill her. Brittany was going to help me threaten her…just to scare her, you know? I just wanted to tell her to get away from that Josh kid." Leo said, the anger went right back into his eyes.

"Wow, should've known it would have ended this way. A boy with an abusive father, gains his father's roots, but you didn't just threaten her, you killed her.", Stella said, who also gained anger in her soul.

"I told you I didn't kill her. I walked in and choked her just enough so she would be knocked out. Then I had the drumsticks pointed to her that she always used with Josh", Leo said, making his voice squeaky on "Josh".

"You were jealous weren't you? Of this guy walking in from nowhere and taking your girl away." Mac said.

"Of course she was cheating on me, with that…jock! You think I'm going to get over that easily?" Leo said, once again, looked at Brittany from out in the hallway.

"Well, thing is, she wasn't cheating on you." Mac said, catching a confused look on Leo's face.

"What are you talking about…I seen her…" Leo said, before getting cut off by Stella.

"She was being tutored by Josh. Josh told us that she was afraid that if she wasn't doing well in school that you would break up with her. He said, you liked Cassie perfect." Stella said, taking a quick glance at Mac.

"No, that can't be. No…" Leo was shocked; he couldn't believe what he had heard. "I killed her for nothing! Oh god." Leo said, both Mac and Stella nodded their heads. They knew the whole time that Leo had done this. Leo didn't fight at all when the cuffs were put on him. He was too shocked to notice.

The group walked past Brittany and she was informed that she could go home. Stella called Josh and Vicky, who were happy to find out who had killed Cassie. They were both mysterious of him the whole time.

Finally, that whole day of hard work was over and justice was served. Mac and Stella walked outside and took in that NY air, once again.

"Woo, one case down. We did a lot of running today, didn't we?" Stella asked. Mac was looking at the stars.

"Yeah, of course." Mac replied. He was finally going to tell Stella how he felt about her, and hopefully, she felt the same thing.

"Stella, I love you!" Mac blurted out, he couldn't control the words anymore.

"Really, you do?" Stella asked, causing her to feel like the world stopped. Mac thought she didn't love him because of the way she just talked.

"I love you, too", Stella said. She ran over and gave him a big hug and smooch on the cheek. Mac did the same.

So, Mac and Stella are finally a couple. The pair walked down the street holding hands.

"Hey Mac, do you want to have dinner?" Stella asked, her smile glowing in the moonlight.

"I wouldn't miss it for nothing." Mac said, as he led Stella into the restaurant.


End file.
